Collected research

InsertScript: Adobe Reader PDF - Client Side Request Injection

Adobe Reader PDF - Client Side Request Injection

Adobe Reader's XFA submit element copies its textEncoding charset straight into the POST request the PDF makes, so a newline injected there adds arbitrary headers such as Referer, Host or Origin, or pipelines an entirely new request. It fires with no user interaction when the PDF loads in the Adobe ActiveX plugin, and a redirect turns it into a GET while keeping the injected header.

Record

Document

Adobe Reader PDF - Client Side Request Injection

Published by

insert-script.blogspot.com

Topic

Injection

In the archive

• Collected in the 2018 research round

Tags

• header-injection
• pdf
• activex
• request-smuggling
• http
• filter-bypass
• owasp-a03-2021
• owasp-a05-2021

This page is the archive's own catalogue record. The research is the work of insert-script.blogspot.com, first published at the original source. Preserved copies are kept so the citation survives its host; this one was last captured on 10 August 2026.